"I was livid," Rilee said. "He didn't know. That's not his fault. I would think that's a training issue. Maybe that was the only thing he wasn't trained. I don't know. But we missed an opportunity to possibly gain some key evidence."

Brown said Rilee's account is untrue, saying, "Our investigators are well-trained. Of course, he knew how to retrieve those records."

At least three female inmates claimed Burgess forced them to perform sexual acts in his office and truck. Yet Ferrero told jurors he decided against any DNA tests because there would be a low probability of retrieving DNA evidence, and that it would be "too extensive" and "too intrusive" to the sheriff's office and defendant's property.

So no tests were ordered. Nor was Burgess ever questioned by OSBI agents.

"OSBI never interviewed Mike Burgess to get his side of the story — not once," Huddleston said. "Now wouldn't you think they would want to know what he had to say about these allegations before filing them?

"OSBI didn't do any type of DNA testing, either. They didn't pull up the rug in his office, test the seat of his chair, or even go through his pickup. Nothing. I didn't think they did any kind of real investigation."

There also is the issue of the sheriff's infamous flashlight — an instrument Burgess purportedly used to rape one of his victims. Investigators never produced the flashlight for evidence.

Present Custer County Sheriff Bruce Peoples found the flashlight in March in a box of other items taken from Burgess after his 2008 resignation. Peoples said OSBI never requested the flashlight as evidence.

"I find it astonishing," Peoples said. "What better piece of evidence to hold up to a jury to say, 'Look at it here.' I have no idea why it has sat here for so long, but it has."

Waves of criticism

In March, 7-year-old Aja Johnson's decomposing body was found in the woods east of downtown Norman. Nearby, in a car owned by her mother, sat the rotting corpse of her abductor and stepfather, Lester William Hobbs.

The two had been missing since Jan. 23.

Aja was found in an area where Hobbs had lived for 18 years, and down the road from where his parents are buried at the Denver Cemetery. Critics quickly surfaced, asking why OSBI didn't conduct a more thorough search of what should have been a hot spot for investigators.